School Library Crisis Toolkit

If you are looking at the AASL School Library Crisis Toolkit, chances are your program is danger of being reduced or eliminated. This kit is designed to assist you as you build meaningful and effective support for saving your program. That means educating and rallying stakeholders to speak out on behalf of school libraries.

Thinking about Advocacy
True advocacy is when stakeholders stand up and speak out for you on behalf of a cause, idea, program or organization. Think of what is happening in Washington State with the Spokane Moms. With the Moms behind the message, it carries significantly more weight than if librarians alone campaign for better funding for their own school libraries. As librarians, we need to plan ahead and focus our efforts on building support from stakeholder groups. Ideally, you want students, parents, teachers and other stakeholders to carry the message that school libraries make a difference to students. But this won't happen without careful planning and action. We need to educate and mobilize our stakeholders to advocate for school libraries. The voices of school librarians are most effective when we join our voices with others to advocate for students and student learning.

Crisis Planning

If there is time, think in terms of the group's mission, vision, and objectives.

Put together a timeline to organize efforts.

Key: Remember decisions are business and not personal. Try to avoid forcing decision makers, who are reluctantly making cuts, into defensive positions. When are forced to defend cuts, they are more likely to feel strongly in favor of the cuts. The goal is to build bridges for working relationships centered around what is best for children. Messages have to be about students and student learning; they cannot be about the jobs of librarians. Schools are not in the business of employing librarians; they are about students and learning. We need to reach out to these decision makers with a helping hand. A positive approach is to offer to supply information to help inform difficult decisions and to help support efforts to bring back positions. It is critical not to form an adversarial relationship.

Communication structure

How will you keep your coordinating group informed?

How will you ask for support?

Who is going to contact which group?

Who is going to follow up?

How will interested parties be kept informed?

Identifying the stakeholders

Bring together any interested parties. Arrange for a meeting with library personnel and other concerned individuals.

Determine potential sources of support:

local organizations

union

know which members of your group are dues paying members

encourage non members to join

review contract with union leadership

PTA/PTO

building

district

public library

local colleges, technical schools, and universities

professional library organizations

local and regional library associations and organizations

state library organization(s)

AASL

individuals

students

alumni

parents

teachers

administrators

community members

business owners

Crafting messages

Key: When asking for support, messages should be child-centered. Write in terms of "what the students will gain or lose with a diminished educational opportunities" and not about "what the library will gain or lose." Stakeholders are interested in children, not libraries.

While this blog is geared toward marketing, the concept of looking for what makes a “product” unique and essential to the end user is an important approach. Look at the library from the end-user perspective to determine what makes the library program distinctively necessary and valuable to students and teachers.

The Research

Two of the three school districts in Santa Cruz County do not have high school librarians. This published study shows the difference in achievement by students from the respective high schools in a Cabrillo College course.

Advances school library programs to meet the needs of the changing school library environment and is guided by the Standards for the 21st-Century Learner and Standards for the 21st-Century Learner in Action.

This is ILILE’s collection of resources for administrators on the role of professionally staffed school libraries. A second section of this toolkit provides resources to help school librarians work with administrators.

Additional Toolkits

Key Concept: Budget Cuts In this time of limited resources, educational leaders are faced with unenviable decisions. They have to make cuts. These are decisions that they do not want to make, but have to make. They try to make informed decisions that will minimize the negative impact on students. Cuts can happen to excellent programs where the librarians have done everything “right” and more. School districts cannot spend money that they do not have. What can we do? We need to make a conscious effort to avoid making business decisions personal. It is imperative that we do not back the unfortunate administrators into corners. We do not want to force administrators to rationalize and defend library cuts. We need to continue making connections between the district's educational goals and how the library plays an essential role in meeting those goals. We need to show our support for the district by providing information that will assist them with the data they need to make informed future decisions regarding the support of students and learning through library services. Our job is to offer support, assistance and data that will help decision makers make informed decisions prior to cuts and to support their efforts to ultimately bring back positions after cuts. Messages have to be about students and student learning; they cannot be about the jobs of librarians. Schools are not in the business of employing librarians; they are about students and learning.

Dealing with Budget Cut Resources: Fontichiaro, Kristin. "Staffing Has Been Cut…Now What Do You Do?" School Library Media Activities Monthly. v. 24 no. 8 (April 2008). p. 28-30. When it is over, is it over? Fontichiaro provides strategies for dealing with cuts.